Red

Directed by

Robert Schwentke

(PG-13)

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

**

Retired CIA agents return for one last case.

This adaptation of a Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner graphic novel feels like a “missed opportunity,” said David Germain in the Associated Press. Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman head up this spy caper about CIA retirees who return to action to disrupt an agency plot that has targeted them for assassination. Yet while Red “aims for a mix of action and comedy,” it never quite delivers either. The script doesn’t offer enough jokes to offset the violence, and director Robert Schwentke’s sloppy pacing makes the film lose momentum well before its end. Red still feels “enjoyably silly,” thanks to the “gameness of the cast,” said John DeFore in The Hollywood Reporter. Senior citizen Mirren has never looked more smashing wielding a gun in an evening gown. But so what if a few stars did what the director asked? said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Despite Red’s “barrage of bullets, blood, and wisecracks,” I was never convinced that anyone—from the actors to the audience—was truly having any fun.